Tuesday, June 25, 2024

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1/ The U.S. surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis. In a first-of-its-kind advisory, Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that gun violence poses a “serious threat to the health and well-being of our country.” The 39-page advisory underscores the physical and mental toll of gun violence and called on Congress to pass laws to require safe and secure firearm storage, implement universal background checks, ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines for civilian use, increase mental health care, and regulate the safety of firearms like any other consumer products. “Gun violence has now become the leading cause of death among kids and teens,” Murthy said. More than 4,600 deaths under the age of 19 were caused by gun violence in 2022, 54% of adults say they or a relative have experienced a firearm-related incident, nearly 80% of adults report being anxious about the prospect of a mass shooting, and more than a third of adults say they don’t go to certain places or events for fear of being shot. About 60% of Americans are worried about losing someone they care about to gun violence. “For too long, this issue has been mired in polarization and politics, but our goal, my goal, is to take this issue out of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health, which is where it belongs,” Murthy said, adding that “a deep sense of fear” now pervades American society. (NBC News / Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / NPR / Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / Axios / STAT News)

2/ After Texas’ ban on abortion went into effect, infant deaths in the state increased by nearly 13%. In the rest of the country, infant mortality increased less than 2% over the same period, according to the new study out of Johns Hopkins University. Texas Senate Bill 8 took effect on Sept. 1, 2021, and prohibits abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can be as early as five weeks, with no exceptions for incest, rape or fetal abnormalities. Previously, abortion was allowed until 20 weeks. “This is pointing to a causal effect of the policy; we didn’t see this increase in infant deaths in other states,” said Alison Gemmill, who led the research. “These findings suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of infant health and the associated trauma to families and medical costs.” (

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Monday, June 24, 2024

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1/ The Supreme Court upheld a federal law that prohibits anyone subject to a domestic violence restraining order from having a gun. Chief Justice John Roberts said there was “no question” that the federal law banning firearms for domestic abusers is constitutional, saying it uses “common sense” and is applicable “after a judge determines that an individual poses a credible threat” of physical violence. The 8-1 decision – Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter – limits the court’s 2022 decision that vastly expanded Second Amendment rights by narrowing the ability of state and local governments to restrict guns outside the home. The decision comes a week after the court ruled that a federal ban on “bump stocks,” which makes semi-automatic rifles fire more rapidly, was unlawful. (CNN / NPR / Washington Post / Associated Press / NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg)

Clarence Thomas Says Domestic Abusers Should Own Guns. “In his dissent, Thomas wrote that stripping a domestic abuser’s right to own a gun pursuant to a protective order was a due process violation, calling it ’an automatic, uncontestable consequence of certain orders.’” (Daily Beast)

The Supreme Court Walks Back Clarence Thomas’ Guns Extremism. “Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion walked back maximalist rhetoric—recklessly injected into the law by Justice Clarence Thomas—that had imperiled virtually every modern regulation limiting access to firearms.” (Slate)

Justice Samuel Alito absent from Supreme Court session for second day in a row. “Alito’s absence, for which the Supreme Court has not provided an explanation, is unusual because it’s the end of the term and the justices have issued nine opinions over the last two days.” (CNN)

Supreme Court Signals Term Ending in July as Trump Ruling Looms. “The US Supreme Court signaled it will take the unusual step of extending its term into July as it finishes work on about a dozen cases, including Donald Trump’s bid for immunity from prosecution for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.” (Bloomberg)

2/ Judge Aileen Cannon appeared skeptical of Trump’s arguments that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel in the federal classified documents case. Trump’s lawyer argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment o...

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Thursday, June 20, 2024

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1/ The judge overseeing convicted felon Trump’s trial involving “willful retention” of classified documents in violation of the Espionage Act refused to hand off the case to a more experienced judge despite two more senior colleagues on the federal bench in Florida urging her to do so. Two judges called Judge Aileen Cannon shortly after she took on the case. The first told her the case would be better handled by a jurist closer to Miami’s busiest courthouse, which had a secure facility approved to hold the sort of highly classified information that might be used in the case. The second call came from Cecilia Altonaga, the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, who told Cannon the optics of her overseeing the trial would be bad. Cannon presided over the legal battle between the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers regarding the classified documents that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. Although Cannon granted Trump’s request to temporarily block federal investigators from using documents with classified markings and appoint a “special master” to review all 11,000 documents, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals twice reversed her decisions. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has little trial experience and has indefinitely postponed the trial and declined to set a date for it to begin even though both the prosecution and the defense said they’re ready to start. Should Trump win the presidential election in November, he could order the Justice Department to drop the case. Trump faces 40 federal charges for keeping classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago and then obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. (New York Times / CNN / Daily Beast / Axios)

2/ The Supreme Court upheld a Trump-era tax on overseas investments. At issue was whether the government could levy a one-time tax on investment proceeds that had not been received, or realized, as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Charles and Kathleen Moore challenged their $15,000 tax bill related to an investment in an India-based company, arguing that there was no income to tax because they had received no payments or dividends from the company. They maintained that the tax was in violation the 16th Amendment, which authorizes Congress to collect taxes on income. The ruling ended a lawsuit that many experts feared could destabilize the nation’s tax system. By preserving the current income tax structure, it avoided the fiscal chaos that analysts and economists had warned about. (NPR / CNN / Associated Press / New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / NBC News)

3/ Louisiana’s Republican Governor signed legislation requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroomVisit WTF Just Happened Today? for more news and headlines, brought to you by Matt Kiser. The WTFJHT Podcast is narrated and produced by Joe Amditis.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

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1/ Biden announced executive actions to protect some 500,000 immigrants without legal status in the U.S. from deportation. The new policy will shield undocumented individuals if they’ve lived in the U.S. for 10 or more years and are married to a U.S. citizen. The protection also provides a streamlined path to citizenship. About 500,000 undocumented spouses and 50,000 undocumented stepchildren of U.S. citizens are expected to be eligible to apply. Biden also announced a policy that makes DACA recipients and so-called “Dreamers” eligible for work visas, rather than temporary work authorization. “Today’s a good day,” Biden said. (New York Times / Associated Press / Politico / NBC News / Bloomberg / Washington Post / ABC News / CNN)

2/ The New York Court of Appeals rejected convicted felon Trump’s appeal of the gag order in the election interference case involving falsified business records, in which he was convicted last month. The court wrote that Trump’s appeal was dismissed because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” As a result, Trump’s gag order, which bars him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect. After Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, his lawyers argued that the order should be lifted because the trial was over. (Associated Press / NBC News / CNN / Politico / Axios / CNBC)

3/ The House Ethics Committee is expanding its investigation into Matt Gaetz amid allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. The bipartisan committee said its investigation was paused in deference to the Justice Department’s investigation, but reopened it after the DOJ declined to bring charges. “There has been a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate,” the committee said. The investigation is reportedly focused on whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privil...

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Monday, June 17, 2024

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1/ The U.S. surgeon general called for social media companies to include a surgeon general’s warning label stating that the platforms can harm people’s mental health. Dr. Vivek Murthy, who cannot unilaterally add warning labels, urged Congress to enact legislation requiring the label to “regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe” and that “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.” Murthy cited a 2019 American Medical Association study that showed teens who spend three hours a day on social media double their risk of depression. On average, teens spend nearly five hours a day on social media apps. “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency,” Murthy added, “and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / ABC News / CNN / Axios)

2/ A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing new protections for LGBTQ+ students in six states. The new rule expands Title IX civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students, as well as the definition of sexual harassment at schools and colleges, and adds safeguards for victims. Compliance with the rules is required to receive federal education aid. However, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves called the regulation as “arbitrary in the truest sense of the word” in blocking it in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The ruling comes days after a different federal judge temporarily blocked the new rule from taking effect in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana. More than 20 Republican states are attempting to block the rules from taking effect as scheduled on Aug. 1. (CNN / Associated Press / New York Times)

3/ The Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to be fired like fully automatic machine guns. The court split 6-3 along ideological lines in deciding that the federal government was wrong to classify a bump stock as a machine gun because “with or without a bump stock, a shooter must release and reset the trigger between every shot.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the majority opinion an “artificially narrow definition” to reach a conclusion that will have “deadly consequences.” The Trump administration imposed the prohibition after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, where a man using bump stocks killed 60 people and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. (NBC News / New York Times /

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Thursday, June 13, 2024

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1/ The Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone, rejecting a challenge to the FDA’s rules for prescribing and dispensing abortion pills. The court, however, took no position on the drugs safety, morality, or whether people have a right to bodily autonomy. Instead, the court said the anti-abortion group had failed to show they had been harmed and did not have legal standing to sue. “For that reason, the federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court, even though the plaintiffs have “sincere legal, moral, ideological, and policy objections.” Kavanaugh suggested that the plaintiffs take their issues to the president, lawmakers, and regulators to make changes. Although the ruling was unanimous, Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho, each of which has a Republican attorney general, have brought their own claims and have different arguments for standing. Mifepristone was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year. (Washington Post / Associated Press / New York Times / CNN / NPR / NBC News / Politico / Axios / ABC News / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization. Every though 49 Senate Republicans signed onto a letter voicing their support for IVF, the legislation failed 48-47. It needed 60 votes to advance. “Once again, Senate Republicans refused to protect access to fertility treatments for women who are desperately trying to get pregnant,” Biden said after the vote. “The disregard for a woman’s right to make these decisions for herself and her family is outrageous and unacceptable.” Last week, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic measure to protect the federal right to access contraception nationwide. (Politico / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times /

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Wednesday, June 12, 2024

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1/ The Republican-controlled House voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified material and declined to bring charges. Despite the Justice Department previously making the full transcript public, Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees issued two subpoenas for the audio recordings. Garland refused to turn over the audio, saying it would set a bad precedent to share audio for cases that do not lead to criminal charges. Garland also told lawmakers that he didn’t see a “legislative purpose” for Congress needing the audio when “the words are the same on the transcript as the audio.” Further, Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings. Nevertheless, House Republicans argued that the audio recording was crucial to their impeachment inquiry into Biden, which remains stalled after their key witness was charged with lying. The vote was 216-207, and marks the third time a sitting attorney general was held in contempt of Congress. It is unlikely that the Justice Department — which Garland oversees — will prosecute him. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press / Axios / CNN / NBC News)

2/ Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is mad that a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism organization did its job and reported on the lavish gifts and travel that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted – but didn’t disclose – from a Republican megadonor. At an event hosted by the Supreme Court Historical Society, Alito was recorded criticizing ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that won a Pulitzer Prize for its series on ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices. Alito argued that ProPublica was not engaging in legitimate journalism, but instead claimed without evidence that they were reporting on the court because “they don’t like our decisions, and they don’t like how they anticipate we may decide some cases that are coming up. That’s the beginning of the end of it.” He added, “There are groups that are very well-funded by ideological interests that have spearheaded these attacks. That’s what it is.” When asked to elaborate, Alito responded: “ProPublica gets a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he’s ever done in his entire life. And they’ve done some of that to me, too. They look for any little thing they can find, and they try to make something out of it.” In 2023, ProPublica published a series of i...

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Tuesday, June 11, 2024

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1/ Judge Aileen Cannon denied convicted felon Trump’s effort to dismiss his classified documents case, but did agree to delete a paragraph in the federal superseding indictment that alleges he mishandled classified materials after he left the White House and obstructed attempts to retrieve them. Cannon said that special counsel Jack Smith’s inclusion of a paragraph, which alleges Trump showed a classified document in September 2021 about an “ongoing military operation” was “not going well” to someone without a security clearance, was “not appropriate,” because it’s not directly related to the charges Trump is facing. Trump isn’t charged with disclosing classified materials; only with illegally retaining them. (NBC News / Washington Post / New York Times / CNN)

2/ Attorney General Merrick Garland called the attacks on the Justice Department by Trump and his allies “baseless, personal and dangerous.” For the second time this month Garland has publicly pushed back against threats by House Republicans to defund special counsel Jack Smith – who is prosecuting Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing efforts to retrieve them – as well as conspiracy theories that the Justice Department was involved in the Manhattan District Attorney’s prosecution of Trump. Garland said the department was facing threats of violence “like never before,” adding that the “continued unfounded attacks against the Justice Department’s employees are dangerous for people’s safety. They are dangerous for our democracy. This must stop.” Meanwhile in a letter to House Republicans, the Justice Department said it had found no emails between DOJ leadership and District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office about any Trump case, calling it “conspiratorial speculation.” (Axios / Politico / NBC News / ABC News / Politico)

3/ House Democrats launched a task force to prepare for the so-called Project 2025, a 920-page policy blueprint compiled by the far-right Heritage Foundation for how a second Trump administration could expand the power of the presidency to act unilaterally while dismantling layers of the federal government. At its core, Project 2025 proposes purging thousands of civil servants and replacing them with Trump loyalists. “This stuff is going to be coming at us at lightspeed. And if we are on our heels and reacting to it, we could lose our democracy,” Jared Huffman said, one of the lawmakers spearheading The Stop Project 2025 Task Force. “So we’re going to need to be ready to confront it in real time. And those plans need to begin now.” Huffman added: “The stakes just couldn’t be higher.” (

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Thursday, June 6, 2024

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1/ Human activities were responsible for 92% of the warming observed in 2023 – earth’s hottest calendar year on record. May was marked the 12th consecutive month to set a monthly global average temperature record. And, over the past year, global temperatures averaged 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Over the next five years, there’s a 90% chance Earth will set yet another record for its warmest year. “It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service said. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres added: “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening.” (Washington Post / Associated Press / Axios / CNN / New York Times)

2/ A federal judge ordered Steve Bannon to report to prison on July 1, to begin serving his four-month prison sentence.Bannon was sentenced in 2022 for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Biden. After the hearing, Bannon promised to take his conviction “all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” claiming without evidence that the Justice Department was “shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump.” Bannon, who will be behind bars until just before the November election and unable to continue his podcast, added: “There’s nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up. There’s not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up.” (Politico / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Associated Press)

3/ An Israeli airstrike on a school operated by the United Nations for displaced Palestinian refugees in Gaza killed at least 40 people, including women and children. The Israel Defense Forces said its forces launched a “precise strike” targeting a group of about 30 Hamas militants. The IDF claims Hamas was using “three classrooms” as a base inside the U.N. school. Despite footage showing bodies wrapped in blankets or plastic bags being laid out in lines in the courtyard of the hospital, an Israeli military spokesperson said he was “not aware of any civilian casualties” as a result of the strike. The Biden administration, meanwhile, said it does not have “independent verification of what exactly occurred,” but that it is talking with the Israelis to “try to get a better understanding.” (

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Wednesday, June 5, 2024

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1/ Convicted felon Trump – again – suggested that he’d prosecute his political opponents if he’s reelected. “It’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” Trump said while discussing the 34 felon counts of orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records a a New York jury found him guilty of. “Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question,” he added. (Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / Axios)

📌 Day 1051: Trump refused to rule out abusing power if re-elected president. In a Fox News town hall, Sean Hannity asked Trump to deny that he would abuse power to seek revenge on political opponents if he returns to the White House. Trump initially dodged the question. “You are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked a second time. “Except for Day One,” Trump replied. Asked for clarification, Trump responded: “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.” Trump then doubled down on his comments: “I love this guy,” referring to Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no. Other than Day One.’ We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.” Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, warned Americans that Trump “has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s re-elected, and tonight he said he will be a dictator on Day 1. Americans should believe him.” (Associated Press / NBC News / New York Times / ABC News / Washington Post / The Guardian / Rolling Stone / Daily Beast / Politico)

📌 Day 1028: Trump – echoing fascist dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini – “pledged” to “root out” his political opponents, which he called “vermin” and claimed they “lie, steal and cheat on elections.” In a Veterans Day post, Trump suggested that his political opponents pose a greater “threat from within” to the U.S. than “outside forces” like Russia, China, or North Korea. (Washington Post /

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